A Good Pop Chorus
Much like the themes the record presents, its arrangements are equal parts complicated and sparse. Lyrically, Williams has learned how to say only what needs saying, and nothing more. Comparing a love song like "Book of Love" (purchase/download) to the self-effacing "As Cool As I Am" (purchase/download) from 1996, her restraint becomes apparent. There are still plenty of lines like "I will fight the dizzy spiral of goodbye" that say more than they initially let on.Also hard at work here is Williams' seemingly in-born proclivity for nailing a good pop chorus. "The Easy Way" (purchase/download) puts this to work with the catchy refrain: "I never took the easy way, so won't you take it a little easy on me now."
Dar Williams: Songwriters' Songwriter
All that said, there is plenty on The Promised Land to satisfy Williams' long-time fans. "The Tide Falls Away" (purchase/download) is one of the disc's strongest story-songs. Sparse in its instrumentation, the song talks about the long, slow changes of time."Buzzer" (purchase/download) is a fast-paced topical tune about the variant "pre-fab" influences pulling life in a thousand different direction. On the surface, it's a fun little tune rooted strongly in Williams' acoustic guitar strumming. Listen closely, though, and you'll find her nailing everything from western medicine to fascism and fast food. This is the kind of song so few songwriters are capable of creating, and is thus the kind of song that makes Dar Williams so admired among songwriters.
It's also the kind of song that's all over Promised Land, making it one of the most notable singer-songwriter records of the year so far.
